How managers become leaders
Few leadership transactions are as challenging as the move from running an entire enterprise for the first time.
The scope and complexity of the job dramatically increase in ways that can leave newly minted unit heads feeling overwhelmed and uncertain. The skills that they’ve honed in their previous roles -m astery of their function, organizational know-how, the ability to build and motivate a team-are not longer enough. For the first time, these executives must transform themselves into generalists who understand all the functions.
They must learn to hire, judge, and mediate with a far wider variety of people. They must confront a whole new range of tough questions: What are the big issues on our corporate agenda? What opportunities and threats does the whole business face? How can I ensure the success of the entire organization? At this critical turning point, executives must undergo seven seismic shifts-a tricky set of changes in their leadership focus that require them to develop new skills and conceptual frameworks.
The Seven Seismic Shifts:
Specialist to generalist
Understand the mental models, tools, and terms used in key business functions and develop templates for evaluating leaders of those functions.
Analyst to integrator
Integrate the collective knowledge of cross-functional teams and make appropriate trade-offs to solve complex organizational problems.
Tactician to strategist
Shift fluidly between the details and the larger picture, perceive important patterns in complex environments, and anticipate and influence the reactions of key external players.
Bricklayer to architect
Understand how to analyse and design organizational systems so that strategy, structure, operating models, and skill bases fit together effectively and efficiently, and harness this understanding to make needed organizational changes.
Problem solver to agenda setter
Define the problems the organization should focus on, and spot issues that don’t fall neatly into any one function but are still important.
Warrior to diplomat
Proactively shape the environment in which the business operates by influencing key external constituencies, including the government, NGOs, the media and investors.
Supporting cast member to lead role
Exhibit the right behaviors as a role model for the organization and learn to communicate with and inspire large groups of people both directly, and increasingly, indirectly.